[Gllug] Hypothetical GPL question

[Paul Brazier]

Philosophical question:

Suppose I write a program directly in machine code, could I then release
the binary as GPL without having to distribute any "source code". In
effect the binary being its own source code.

I remember ages ago I had some sort of Atari computer (6502 processor)
which just came with a simple BASIC language. Atari magazines were full
of program listings for you to type in which were just long lists of
machine code, together with a simple BASIC program to load it into
memory. I even wrote a small implementation on the "Life" cellular
automaton using this method and a printed reference of 6502 assembly
codes from a BBC micro manual.

This principle being established, could someone then just write a
program in C, compile it and then claim they wrote it in machine code
and release it under the GPL without the source code? Perhaps cleaning
up the code so it wouldn't have any compiler "fingerprints" left.
I'm not sure why someone would want to do this :-) but it raises the
question of what *is* source code - does it have to easily
human-readable? This would be a subjective definition anyway.
Also, parts of the kernel are written in assembler and I presume are GPL
so you could write a program in assembler and claim you wrote it in
machine code.

To a non-programmer, access to C source code would be just as helpful as
access to the "machine source code" i.e. the binary.
Perhaps there are already GPL binaries-only out there?


--
Paul Brazier
Cosmos UK 


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